Fortes fortuna juvat
by Jaina22
Summary: An answer for the "Trust Me" challenge. Takes place after Tunnel at the End of the light. The remaining crew go after Beka and Tyr. *Complete*
1. Omnia iam fient fieri quae posse negabam

Chapter One: Omnia iam fient fieri quae posse negabam  
  
(Everything which I said could not happen will happen today)  
  
Dylan searched every inch of the Maru but Beka and Tyr were nowhere to be found. His eyes closed with sad realization. They were gone. His colleagues, his friends, were gone. He walked out of the small salvage ship in a daze. No, it wasn't possible. He couldn't accept it and he wasn't going to give up that easily.  
  
"Harper," he said and waited for Andromeda to open a comm line for him.  
  
"Yah boss?" was the cheerful reply. Harper didn't know yet.  
  
"You said the enemy ships were destroyed. Were they destroyed or pulled back to where they came from?"  
  
"Hold on a sec."  
  
Dylan had never been very religious but he said a prayer just then, hoping beyond hope for a miracle.  
  
"Dylan," Harper's voice made him jump, "there isn't any wreckage so they probably popped back to whatever dimension, universe, or galaxy they were from."  
  
"Is the tunnel still open?"  
  
Time itself seemed to slow as Dylan waited for an answer. He could hear his own heart beating and feel a bead of sweat drip down his neck.  
  
"Yes, but-"  
  
"Oh thank God!" he said as he let himself sink against the wall.  
  
"Uh, Dylan, didn't we want to, I don't know, destroy the tunnel?"  
  
"Beka and Tyr never came back. They were on one of those alien ships when the bomb went off. They got pulled back along with the rest of the fleet."  
  
"D-Dylan the tunnel is there b-but. The tunnel isn't a tunnel anymore. It's unstable, a r-rip in space-time."  
  
"What are you saying?"  
  
"I don't know if we can navigate it," Harper whispered, his voice lost with the shock. "Even if we could, it'll collapse in under six hours."  
  
Dylan slowly stood up and walked out of the hangar bay. He quickened his pace to a jog, then to a run, then to an all out sprint.  
  
"Andromeda!" the captain yelled as he got closer to command.  
  
"Yes Dylan?"  
  
"Inform Zuchov of our victory then take us into the tunnel. We're going after them."  
  
"Aye aye," she answered.  
  
Dylan and Harper arrived at command at the same time. Neither said a word to the other as they entered but they both understood each other. They were going to get Beka and Tyr back, no matter what the costs. As the Andromeda got closer to where the tunnel had been the tension got heavier.  
  
"You said this was a rip in space-time," Dylan questioned his engineer while he continued to stare straight ahead.  
  
"Uh-huh," Harper replied, as dazed as Dylan.  
  
"What would you say the odds are of successfully navigating this rip.twice?" "A million to one."  
  
"Hang on. I have a feeling this is going to be a rough ride." Dylan sighed as he gripped the controls and launched them straight into the dark blue chasm. The rip was a lot like slipstream only rougher and less intact. The Andromeda bucked and twirled with the taxing maneuvers. Rommie gritted her teeth against the pain her processors told her she was feeling, Trance held onto the console in front of her so tightly her knuckles turned white, and Harper was just trying not to break anything as he was thrown over the controls he had been standing at. Although it seemed like forever it was only a little over a minute before they were spit out onto the other side in one piece. Dylan was breathing hard when he finally let go of the hand controls.  
  
"I've.never.had to.do anything.that.hard before," he gasped out.  
  
"Pretty," Trance said softly as a huge ship appeared on the view screen. It was darker than night and dots of light of different sizes covered it. The only reason they could discern it from regular space was because there wasn't a real star in sight. The space they were in was pitch black. "At least there's only one. That should narrow the search."  
  
Harper pulled himself up from the floor when he saw the alien ship. He felt something warm and sticky dripping down the left side of his face but ignored it.  
  
"That's impossible," the engineer mumbled to himself and closed his left eye as the unidentified substance ran into it, stinging.  
  
"The rip will dissipate in five hours and forty-four minutes," Rommie stated, indirectly ordering them to get moving. "If we haven't cleared it by that time we'll be stuck here.forever."  
  
"I'm going to take a slipfighter to that.ship, and try to find Beka and Tyr," Dylan said as he walked to the door. "If I'm not back in five and a half-hours get out of here. That's an order."  
  
"Dylan!" Harper ran after the captain. "Wait up! I'm coming with you!"  
  
**********  
  
TBC  
  
Story Title Translation: Fortune Favors the Brave 


	2. Ad Infinitum

Chapter Two: Ad infinitum  
  
(to infinity)  
  
Dylan entered the slipfighter just as Harper rounded the corner out of breath. The captain had been hoping to out run him but Harper had kept up and even managed to get his hand in the slip door just as it was about to close. Ignoring the pain he had used what little remaining energy to wedge it open.  
  
"Harper no," Dylan said sternly when he saw the engineer step through the jammed door. "I need you to stay here. Besides, you're hurt."  
  
"Trance can stay here. I'm coming."  
  
"I'm not opening the hangar doors until you're out."  
  
"I can open them."  
  
"I can override your command."  
  
"And I can override yours," Harper said hotly. He wasn't going to stay behind just because Dylan didn't think he could cut it. Beka was like family, and although he hated to admit it, he'd become attached to Tyr as well.  
  
The two men were engaged in a staring contest when Rommie's voice cut across the silence, "Five hours and thirty-eight minutes. Would you like me to open the hangar doors now?"  
  
Dylan continued to stare at the unrelenting youngster. He knew that using force to get Harper off would involve kicking and screaming and he didn't have the patience or the time. It angered Dylan even more that Harper was calling his bluff. He was supposed to be able to help and protect his crew and they were supposed to listen to him in return. However, it seemed like he had finally met his successor in outright stubbornness.  
  
"Off," Dylan tried futilely once more, "now."  
  
"No!"  
  
The captain let out and exasperated sigh before continuing, "Fine. Rommie, open the doors."  
  
"Opening," was the terse reply, then with more feeling, "Good luck."  
  
Dylan piloted the slipfighter out of the hangar bay and set it to autopilot. It was going to take about ten minutes to reach the starry ship of the enemy. He hadn't wanted the Andromeda getting too close. He could only imagine the type of weaponry this new foe could have and he really wanted to be able to come back to a ship that was in one piece, if he came back at all.  
  
"Harper," he said as he walked over to his friend, "let me see your head."  
  
Blood was dripping down the left side of Harper's face from a rather nasty looking cut right above his eyebrow. With his left eye still squeezed shut he dodged Dylan's probing hand and groaned when his developing migraine flared.  
  
"You're bleeding all over," Dylan stated evenly.  
  
"Sorry boss," Harper mumbled, then asked, "Do you think we'll get them back?"  
  
"I'm not going back without them."  
  
Harper nodded slowly in agreement as Dylan took him by the shoulders and led him to the slipstream chair.  
  
"Now stay there or I'll tie you there," Dylan said as he went to look for the medical kit.  
  
Harper was about to ask him where he thought he'd get the rope, but decided against aggravating the already cranky captain. Staring straight ahead at the looming space ship he answered, "Me neither."  
  
"What?" Dylan asked just as he found the med kit in an old gutted console. The places things could get shoved still boggled him.  
  
"I said me neither. I'm not going back without them."  
  
Dylan smiled. Harper was loyal, that was for sure. Sometimes he couldn't help but wonder how someone from a backstabbing hell hole planet could place so much trust and loyalty into other people. The only conclusion he ever came up with was that Harper wasn't like most Earth dwellers. Or at least he wasn't anymore. Some of his old mudfoot qualities still shone through sometimes but they were getting less and farther between.  
  
"It's deep," Dylan commented as he examined the cut. "Trance is going to have to close it when we get back. How'd you do this anyway?"  
  
"I fell, actually the more precise word would be flew, over a," Harper paused to wince when Dylan started rubbing the laceration with rubbing alcohol, "console when you were doing your oh so graceful maneuvers."  
  
Dylan chuckled and finished wrapping a thick piece of gauze around Harper's head. He had wiped away the rest of the blood but a red spot was already visible on the bandage. The huge enemy ship in the slipfighter's viewport was a continuing reminder of impending doom.  
  
"What was it like?" Harper asked curiously.  
  
"What was what like?"  
  
"Earth. What was Earth like in your days?"  
  
Dylan frowned, "Why?"  
  
"In case we don't make it back.I just want to know."  
  
"Well, I'd only been there a couple times when I was a kid but the thing I remember the most is the ocean. It was just like Infinity Atoll only there were dense forests and snowy mountains all over the northern regions and the air was so fresh you could taste it. But the thing that made the whole place perfect was the people. They were of different races and cultures but they were all caring and kind towards each other. I'd never seen a planet so peaceful before. You know, it used to be called the blue jewel of the known worlds. That's the Earth I remember."  
  
Harper smiled faintly, lost in his own imaginary world.  
  
"I think I would have liked that Earth," he said. "Thanks."  
  
"No problem," Dylan said as he replaced himself with Harper in the slipstream chair. "I think I see some sort of airlock towards the top of the ship. I'll try to put us down there."  
  
The slipfighter landed almost flawlessly and Harper and Dylan jumped down into the alien vessel with guns in hand, prepared for the battle they were sure they were going to have to fight. What they saw was a little surprising.  
  
"It's.empty." Harper said nervously. "And eerie."  
  
"I'm sure there's plenty of our friends around here somewhere," Dylan said as started off.  
  
"Maybe, uh, maybe they abandoned it and this is just like some kind of ghost ship."  
  
"Or maybe," Dylan turned towards Harper and raised his eyebrows, "they already know we're here."  
  
Harper swallowed hard, eyes wide at his captain's attempt to scare him.  
  
"I like my idea better," the genius engineer replied.  
  
"Ya, so do I."  
  
They continued on in silence for awhile. The groans and cracks of the ship would sometimes make Harper jump, but other than that they didn't run into any other ills. It didn't seem like the corridor they were walking along would ever end and Dylan was starting to wonder if they were getting anywhere at all. Just as that thought crossed his mind they reached the end and it opened up into a huge, circular cavern with thousands of other similar corridors to choose from.  
  
"Well I'd say this is anything but better," Harper noted.  
  
"And we only have five hours and seven minutes before the rip collapses."  
  
"I hate to be a party pooper but there is no way we can cover this much ground in that amount of time."  
  
Dylan sighed before deciding, "We'll have to split up. It'll double our chances. Maybe one of us will even find Beka and Tyr or some trace of where they are, if they're here at all."  
  
"Split up? But what if one of us finds something? We won't be able to tell each other. No, that's a bad idea. We should, um, just take our chances and stay together."  
  
"Here's a comm," Dylan said as he handed Harper the metal object. "This way we'll be able to remain in contact. Check in every ten minutes. Now, you go left and I'll go right."  
  
Harper took a breath as if to disagree but exhaled sharply instead and replied, "Fine."  
  
They each had their backs turned towards each other so neither of them noticed they had comically turned into a separate corridor at the exact same time.  
  
I have a really bad feeling about this, Harper thought to himself as he kept walking. This is a bad idea. This is a very bad idea.  
  
Harper was exhausted. He figured he'd been walking for a little over an hour because Dylan had checked in with him seven times already and he knew how precise that man had to be. Harper was a perfectionist and it unnerved him. Who knew how annoying it was for Beka? He laughed at the thought.  
  
Concentrate Harper. Beka's going to be gone for good unless you find her.  
  
  
  
That sombered him up, but he still felt awfully giddy. He unconsciously brought a hand up to the left side of his face and was surprised to find that a large part of the gauze wrapped around his forehead was soaked in blood, his blood. Another chuckle escaped him and started giggling for no reason.  
  
Maybe that's why I feel like I'm on my own little cloud, he thought happily, glad to have solved the mystery of the emotions. Isn't there some kind of sang? Cloud nine? Walking on cloud nine? I used to know what that meant. I think I may have lost a little too much blood.  
  
He broke out into an uncontrollable laughing fit but stopped short when he rounded the next corner.  
  
Oh shit. 


	3. Dum spiro, spero

Chapter Three: Dum spiro, spero (As long as I breathe, I hope)  
  
For a few precious seconds time seemed to stand still. Harper felt like he was taking the whole scene in from very far away when he was really right in front of two very angry looking aliens. Both parties were frozen on the spot and staring at the other. Harper was doing so out of plain fear and the aliens were just very curious.  
  
"Um," the engineer stuttered, "I guess you guys weren't on the Andromeda, eh? Well that's good cause if you were I'd probably be in pieces by now."  
  
One of the aliens hissed and took a step forward. Eyes widening, Harper took a step back and drew his gun.  
  
"Now listen, if you take one more step, I"ll, I'll." He trailed off and stared at the hand that was holding his gun. It couldn't be his hand, it was shaking too much.  
  
But if it's not my hand, who's holding the gun? His mind didn't seem to be working too well. The alien!  
  
Harper squeezed the trigger in self-defense and started when the gun he was looking at fired.  
  
They shot me! He thought. But I don't feel anything. Is this what dying's like? Well, I'm not going down without a fight. Take that!  
  
He squeezed the trigger again and again, hoping that he could get his revenge on the two aliens before he made his way to the pearly gates. When he stopped, the corridor was dead quiet. Harper cracked open eyes he hadn't realized were closed and saw both of the aliens lying on the ground, dead. He looked down at his stomach and instead of a bloody hole like he thought there'd be there was nothing. Quickly pulling his shirt up and running fingers along his belly, Harper exhaled in relief.  
  
"I'm alive," He said to himself. "I'm alive! Man, what I wouldn't give for a drink right now."  
  
Harper stumbled with a spell of dizziness as he turned to take a different way.  
  
Twenty minutes later Harper was no closer to finding Tyr or Beka. He was starting to lose his last thread of patience. Part of it was out of frustration and the plain feeling of helplessness and the other part was the fact that Dylan had commented on the engineer's irritability the last time he'd been on the comm.  
  
"Irritable!" Harper scoffed while he yelled into the nothingness. "Can you believe he had the gall to call me that? Is he totally oblivious to this whole situation?! C'mon God, Divine, whatever, give me some help here. Please? Argh! If he wants irritated I'll show him irritated!"  
  
With that, Harper kicked the corridor wall as hard as he could. He was purely dumbfounded when he found himself sitting on his butt because his whole foot had gone through it like paper.  
  
"What the-?"  
  
He picked himself up and used his hands to rip apart the rest of the fake cover, trying to see what was up. What he found made him cry out with joy. It was a console with a place to jack in and everything. The thing that stunned him the most was that it was only a small 2 by 2 feet section. If he had tried kicking anywhere else he would've hit pure metal.  
  
"Wow, I guess there really is a God." Harper mumbled in shock at his good fortune.  
  
The engineer glanced nervously both ways before plugging in. The trip to VR was like a rocket, a lot quicker than he was used to. The instantaneous leap left him standing in the middle of a stream of data trying his best to keep the contents of his stomach down.  
  
"Wild," Harper croaked to himself when he found his voice.  
  
The data around him was in weird symbols that he couldn't read. Closing his eyes, he willed the alien language to convert to English. The millions of new letters were a little overwhelming but Harper whizzed through them, doing his best to try to find the location where prisoners were held. He found what he was looking for in a small map. He enlarged it and put it in his memory, literally. Being able to do that was one of the finer points of having a port.  
  
Harper had what he'd been looking for but being the stupid genius he was he had to snoop around some more. It only led to trouble. A few seconds after breaking through an encrypted file an alarm that alerted the aliens to his location went off and he was zapped out of the VR. Jacking in had been faster, reading the files had been harder, and getting kicked out was a lot more painful.  
  
Would you like me well done or can we stop at just medium rare? Was Harper's last coherent thought in the real world before his eyes rolled back in his head and he passed out.  
  
"Harper?!" Dylan yelled into his comm for what felt like the millionth time. "Harper are you there? Harper! Answer me damnit!"  
  
There was no reply or quip from the engineer and that worried Dylan to a great degree. Fearing for Harper's safety, the captain turned right and started to make his way in the direction he had last seen Harper going. A glance at his watch told him there were only three and a half-hours left. Dylan quickened his pace.  
  
A little under an hour and six aliens later, Dylan stumbled across a couple that were carrying an unconscious human.  
  
"Harper!" Dylan yelled and fired two short bursts with his forcelance. The aliens fell dead to the ground.  
  
Why wasn't it easy to kill these guys on the Andromeda? Dylan thought as he checked Harper for a pulse and picked him up in a fireman's carry. And where the hell do I go now?  
  
The captain closed his eyes and pointed to nowhere in particular. It just happened to be a wall.  
  
"Uh," Dylan stammered, glad Harper hadn't been awake to witness the embarassing act, "I guess we'll go the other way."  
  
Turning on his heel, he started walking down a very dark corridor with his weapon in hand. 


	4. Inter arma silent leges

Chapter Four: Inter arma silent leges (During war, the laws are silent)  
  
Trance stood in command mesmerized by the alien ship. She'd been there ever since Dylan and Harper had left three hours ago. A million different scenarios, or flashes as she called them, had been going through her head. Beka and Tyr dead, Harper and Dylan alive; Harper dead, Beka, Tyr, and Dylan alive; Beka and Harper alive, Dylan and Tyr dead; Dylan, Harper, Beka, and Tyr alive; Beka, Tyr, Dylan, and Harper all dead. There was no way she was going to be able to predict this one or even come close.  
  
How can something so beautiful be so evil? She thought as she unglued her eyes from the ship, but chided herself when she realized how naïve it sounded.  
  
"Um.Trance?" Rommie entered command with a weird look on her face. Her hair was disheveled and there were lines of stress marking her face.  
  
There's no way you could tell she was an android, Trance mused then asked, "Yes Rommie?"  
  
"We are uh, being hailed."  
  
"What?! On screen."  
  
A new alien which Trance assumed was a male greeted them pleasantly but briefly, "Hello, I'm Silek. I am wondering why you are here."  
  
After she was over the initial shock of seeing a large, brown person with a weird head, sharp teeth, and pure black eyes, Trance answered, "Some aliens took two members of our crew right before we destroyed their tunnel.mostly. We chased after them in hopes of retrieving our friends."  
  
The brown man nodded, "So you do not know that you've stumbled across a war?"  
  
This shook Trance up a little, "N-n-no."  
  
"Oh don't worry, there's been no harm done. Our people have been fighting their people for generations. I don't even remember what started it all, but the whole thing gradually turned into a quest for.genocide?.yes, that's the word, for both sides. My people, being the more peaceful and less savage of the two, have admitted they were in err in doing this. Now that the war is coming to a close and victory is all but guaranteed for us, our foes are trying to flee and take over a different universe. The technology they're using is nothing new but they destroyed billions of our suns and stars trying to gather enough energy to complete their 'tunnel' as you call it. There were hundreds of different universes to choose from, some populated, some not. They just happened to choose yours and I apologize whole-heartedly for their mistakes."  
  
Rommie and Trance stared at Silek for exactly 5.22 seconds before Trance broke the silence.  
  
"Wait a minute," she was so confused she didn't even know where to start. "How can you talk to us and how can we understand you? There's no way we both speak the same language."  
  
Silek smiled, he liked this new species. They were kind and logical and they seemed genuine. He didn't think it would hurt to let them in on a few of his species more productive achievements.  
  
"You can understand me because I am, in fact, speaking your language. I can do this and understand you because of a.processor that's been implanted in my brain. I can't really get into the details, but no, most of my species wouldn't understand you."  
  
The explanation eased a few of Trance's fears, but not all, "Why are you here?"  
  
"Like I said, this is a war and we're about to sabotage our enemy's main ship."  
  
"You're going on that thing?"  
  
Silek nodded.  
  
Trance licked her lips and glanced at Rommie before asking as politely as she could, "Can I come with you?"  
  
The brown alien turned around for a minute to talk to someone behind him. They appeared to be arguing. Trance hadn't wanted to start any trouble but this new development could change everything and she wanted to be involved.  
  
Silek, facing the viewport again, smiled and said, "Yes, you can come. We're assigning a team to do the sabotage and another to go with you. We know the inside of their ship and I think we have a basic estimate on where your friends are being kept. I'll be by in a ylick.um, I mean.minute to pick you up. Silek out."  
  
The screen turned black and Trance found herself staring at the enemy ship once again. She chewed on her lip as the odds of completing this mission successfully played across her mind.  
  
"Trance," Rommie startled her, "are you sure this is such a good idea? We're placing an awful lot of trust in people we don't even know."  
  
Trance closed her eyes. She didn't see the possibility of betrayal anywhere. Their new allies appeared to be true to their word.  
  
"Yes, I'm sure."  
  
Rommie crossed her arms across her chest in a very human manner. She didn't like this one bit. Having Tyr and Beka missing was terrible. Dylan leaving was bad. Harper tagging along with him was even worse. With Trance gone, there was no one left but her. If her crew died it would be devastating. She didn't know if she'd be able to keep going.  
  
"I just-"  
  
Trance smiled wanly, "It'll be alright Rommie."  
  
The avatar frowned in anger and yelled, "It will, will it? How do you know Trance? Can you honestly guarantee me that? That you'll all come back alive? That you'll come back at all? What do you know Trance? What can you see?"  
  
Trance sighed in apprehension before answering, "I can't promise you any of that. The only thing I know is that these aliens are honest in their offer and I think we need any help we can get because I don't see a perfect possible future right now."  
  
"You said that when we had our encounter with the Magog Worldship and everything turned out alright," Rommie stated. "How's it different now?"  
  
Trance was about to leave and head down to the hangar bay but she figured she owed Rommie a slight explanation at least, "Rommie all I can say is that this whole thing will either turn out to be a brave act or a senseless sacrifice."  
  
With that, she left, leaving a stunned android in her wake. 


	5. Vide et crede

Chapter Five: Vide et crede (see and believe)  
  
When Harper returned to consciousness he desperately wished he hadn't. His head was pounding, his stomach was doing flip-flops, and the tiniest bit of light was an assault to his senses. It took his a few seconds to come to the conclusion that he was moving and if the jostling didn't stop soon he was going to lose what little lunch he had had.  
  
"Stop," Harper moaned in pain.  
  
He felt himself being lowered to the ground and propped against a wall. The cool metal felt good against his skin so he just sat there, hoping for reprieve.  
  
"Harper?" Dylan's voice rang through the fog Harper felt like he was in. "Can you hear me? Are you okay?"  
  
The engineer licked his dry lips before replying softly, "If you don't stop yelling I'm going to kill you."  
  
"Sorry," Dylan whispered. ".Harper?"  
  
"Whad?"  
  
"Can you walk? We still have to find Beka and Tyr."  
  
All of his previous memories came back to him full force and Harper bolted upright, swaying slightly. He had the map! He could help. Opening his eyes warily, he looked around before calling up the image that he'd copied from the mainframe.  
  
Looking up at Dylan's concerned face he said, "We need to go left about 200 meters and take another left. That should take us to place they keep prisoners."  
  
"How do you know that?"  
  
Harper tapped his head lightly, flinching when his finger came back soaked in blood.  
  
"It's all up here. Got a map from the mainframe when I hacked in. Man, their defenses sure pack a punch.literally."  
  
Dylan smiled but he glanced at Harper in worry. He was pale and sweating, his eyes didn't seem to want to focus, and the white bandage around his head was now a deep red.  
  
That cut must've been deeper than I figured, Dylan thought to himself as he closely followed his genius engineer, monitoring his movements but trying not to hope too much. He wanted to find Beka and Tyr more than anything but if this was another dead end. The clock was ticking and at that moment they only had an hour and 17 minutes left.  
  
A little while later, their five minute walk had turned into a fifteen minute one when Harper had gotten confused and took a wrong turn.  
  
"How much longer Harper? This is taking forever." Dylan was losing what little was left of his patience.  
  
"S'ry," Harper apologized. "Don't you think I wanna find them too? Hell, this is worse than that one time I woke up-"  
  
"That's okay Harper," Dylan cut in, not wanting to hear about his friend's morning escapades.  
  
Through scrunched eyes, Harper saw the look he was being shot and stammered, "Oh no boss, it was nothing like that. I was just going to tell you about the worse hangover I ever had and how this is twice as worse."  
  
Dylan had to stifle a smile at the grammar toward the end of the sentence, but the pain-laced words didn't go by unnoticed. They were reaching the end, or so Harper said. The captain was too tired to care and too taxed to argue. He had just wanted to find Beka and Tyr and bring them back unharmed, but now he was lost in the middle of a huge ship with his injured engineer and no sign of their companions.  
  
Harper turned a corner and disappeared from sight for a moment. Dylan was just about to follow when he heard a gasp. He froze with forcelance in hand, already planning his attack. Taking a calming breath to assure steady aim, he jumped out from behind the corner, totally prepared to shoot more aliens. What he saw made the muscles in his hand loosen and he dropped the forcelance to the ground with a clang that seemed to reverberate through the entire ship.  
  
The sight in front of them was magnificent to say the least. They were standing in another cavern only this one was bigger and little pods covered the walls. Each pod appeared to be a sort of holding tank for an organic. Dylan and Harper couldn't recognize a single species in them and some of the aliens didn't even look sentient.  
  
"We found them," Harper whispered to himself, then turned to Dylan and yelled, "We actually found 'em!"  
  
The loud noise that had come from his own mouth made Harper wince, but he just beamed and stared, waiting for Dylan to start jumping up and down with glee. It didn't happen.  
  
"There has to be hundreds of thousands of people here." the captain muttered. "Harper, there's no way we'll find them in time. We only have a little over an hour."  
  
"Don't say that!" Harper screamed at him, the walls he set up against the stress and pain and desperation suddenly crumbled as his hope was crushed. "We're gonna find them and get 'em outta here.before the hour's up! You'll see!"  
  
They stared at each other, each with similar demeanors.  
  
It's the slipfighter all over again, The thought ran through Dylan's mind.  
  
"Harper?!" A quiet, yet familiar voice penetrated the silence.  
  
"T-Trance?" Harper called out into the nothingness and listened to his voice echo through the room, if you could call it a room.  
  
"Harper! I can see you! Look to your left! No, your other left!"  
  
Dylan and Harper both searched furiously before they saw Trance directly on the other side of the cavern. It would've all been just fine except for one major problem. There was a large, oval chasm across the entire middle of the floor that appeared to be where the engine was held, and it was a very long drop to the bottom.  
  
"There's no bridge," Harper stated.  
  
"Trance! How. Who are they?" Dylan questioned. He wanted to know how she had gotten across but his curiosity was piqued even more when he saw the aliens she was with. The fact that he couldn't identify them made him uneasy.  
  
"These are our new friends. They're here to help us get Beka and Tyr." Trance replied politely.  
  
"How'd you get over there?" Harper asked what would have been Dylan's second question.  
  
"We walked across."  
  
"Walked across what?"  
  
"The air. Our friends here have telekinetic abilities. C'mon!"  
  
The statement shocked Dylan and Harper but Trance didn't look affected in the slightest, as if being able to lift something with one's mind was an everyday thing.  
  
"I can't do that!" Harper yelped as the idea and the agony in his head hit him full force.  
  
"It's easy, all you have to do is trust yourself. And me. And the aliens." Trance said with an enthusiasm that Harper could not believe she possessed.  
  
"Oh, that's all?"  
  
The gold girl smiled, "Yah."  
  
"I was being sarcastic Trance! I mean, walking on air? That's a little hard to comprehend, even for a genius like myself. What you're suggesting, defying gravity with no electronic assistance just doesn't sit right with me." Harper was on the edge of panicking.  
  
"Don't you trust me?" The innocent remark calmed him down but he still wasn't very sure about the whole thing.  
  
"Yeah, but-"  
  
"Then walk across." Trance's tone was commanding but compassionate, and it left no room for argument.  
  
She wouldn't hurt you, Harper thought to himself before yelling none to surely, "I'll try."  
  
"You can do this Harper," He said to himself, earning a weird look from Dylan. "Just like Indiana Jones. Yah, there's really an invisible bridge right under your feet. You're not going to fall, you're not going to fall, you're not going to fall."  
  
A memory of Beka counseling him swept though his mind and he heard her voice, 'Take deep breathes Harper. Slow, deep breaths.'  
  
Harper spared another look at Trance before closing his eyes and thinking, Deep breathes. I'm coming Beka.  
  
The jittery engineer stuck his foot out over the edge of the canyon-like hole and took a step, then another, and another. He kept walking at a faster than brisk pace and didn't stop until he felt a pair of hands steadying him. The smiling face that greeted him sent shivers through his body.  
  
"H-hey," He stuttered as the adrenaline rush wore off.  
  
"Hey yourself," Trance replied as she pulled him closer. "You look terrible."  
  
"I feel terrible," Harper admitted. "But don't worry, I'm sure I feel worse than I look, I mean, look worse than I feel."  
  
Trance laughed, glad to be able to see and touch her friend again. She felt like she could look after him and keep him safe so long as she held him. Dylan had made it across and was having a quiet discussion with their new friends while Trance was perfectly content just holding her friend and it seemed Harper shared her sentiments.  
  
"What are you doing here?" His muffled voice asked.  
  
Trance decided to give him a shortened version of what she knew since they were running out of time, "Well, these aliens are apparently at war with the other aliens. They hailed me on the Andromeda and I asked if I could come along when they went to sabotage this ship. They agreed and even gave me my own search party. Harper.we found Beka and Tyr."  
  
The blonde man let go of his friend and stared at her with wide eyes, "Are they a-alive?"  
  
Trance nodded and gestured towards two pods that some aliens were working on. Beka and Tyr could be seen in them, both struggling to get free from inside.  
  
"As soon as we free them we're going back to the Andromeda and getting out of here," Trance explained.  
  
"Wait a minute," Harper whispered. "What about all the others? Can't we help them too somehow?"  
  
Trance swallowed hard and looked over at the seven aliens who were working to open the pods their friends' were trapped in. She saw Dylan having a heated conversation with Silek and couldn't help but notice the similarity in their stances. In fact, she was looking everywhere but right in front of her.  
  
Harper knew it too and prodded, "What?"  
  
"The people.aliens, in the other pods.thh, they're dead." 


	6. Calamitas virtutis occasio est

Chapter Six: Calamitas virtutis occasio est (Disaster is an opportunity for bravery)  
  
Harper's eyes glistened with fear and he asked softly, "Do you mean to tell me that we're standing in the middle of a graveyard?"  
  
Trance nodded solemnly, "You don't have to whisper Harper, they're already dead."  
  
"Right. What about Beka and Tyr? You said they were still alive! They are, aren't they?!"  
  
"Yes, they are," Trance replied. "They're being held in what our alien friends call vessels. They're air tight but there's enough oxygen left to support them for a day or so. All the others, they've suffocated by now. Some of them don't even breathe oxygen. Do you know how lucky we are that our anatomy just happens to correspond with this universe's?"  
  
"Is that a rhetorical question?" Harper joked.  
  
Trance hit him playfully on the arm. It was almost too good to be true. She didn't think she'd ever see any of them again. The most common future showed her and Rommie.alone.  
  
"Harper?"  
  
"Yah?"  
  
"I-"  
  
"We got them!" The aliens who were working on freeing Beka and Tyr yelled, successfully interrupting Trance.  
  
Everyone rushed over to where the two humans were pulling themselves up from the floor. Dylan and Harper helped Beka up, wide smiles on their faces, while Trance offered Tyr a hand. The next few minutes consisted of hugs, laughing, and claps on the back. It could've gone on much longer but Silek politely interrupted the celebration.  
  
"Captain, I don't wish to be rude but don't you have a time limit to keep?"  
  
Dylan abruptly stopped what he was doing and looked at his watch, "We have.thirty-seven minutes! We need to get out of here."  
  
It took some convincing but eventually, after seeing all the aliens and Dylan go across, Tyr and Beka were too tired to argue anymore and they agreed to walk on the air. Silek and his alien colleagues' were on the opposite side, eyes glazed as they stared straight ahead, concentrating wholly on getting the three humans over the gorge.  
  
"This is an unnecessary risk to my survival," Tyr grumbled as he made his way across.  
  
"Aw, shut up," Beka said from a few feet behind Harper. She was hungry and tired and just wanted to go back to the safe confines of the Andromeda, have a warm meal and sleep for a very long time.  
  
No one noticed when a group of aliens, the same ones that had captured Beka and Tyr, stealthily entered the room from a side door.  
  
When Tyr got to the other side and looked back at what he had just done, he suddenly felt light-headed, although he willed his face not to show it. As the weakness passed, he heard light clicking sounds. At first, he ignored them but they continued and he also smelled something oddly familiar. He frowned while he tried to place the two senses together. The last time this had happened he had been, he had been.on the Maru.getting attacked! The Nietzschean whirled to his left just as the group of those exact aliens attacked Silek and his friends. Dylan and Trance jumped into the fray but not before six of their new allies were slaughtered.  
  
They have mental powers but apparently their physical skills needed work, Tyr thought to himself as a rush of renewed strength flew through him and the corners of the Nietzschean's mouth curved upward in a feral grin, glad to be fighting again.  
  
Momentarily forgotten to everyone were Harper and Beka. When the aliens had attacked Silek and the others, the telekinesis holding them up had cut out. Harper had already reached the side safely when Beka had started to fall. The engineer had dove and grabbed her but what little purchase his booted feet could find was slowly failing. He slipping down as well and Beka knew it.  
  
"Let go!" She yelled furiously at him.  
  
"No!" Harper barked back, equally as angry that she would suggest such a thing.  
  
"I said let go!"  
  
"And I said no!"  
  
"You'll die!" The first officer turned to pleading.  
  
"I don't care. I won't let you fall." And it was the truth. She had saved him countless times and given him a ride off of Earth. There was no way he was going to drop her.  
  
"Harper that's an order! Let go!"  
  
"Since when do I, or you for that matter, take orders?!"  
  
"Since we became waitresses for the Commonwealth. I'm serious Harper, let me go."  
  
The firefight behind them had been forgotten until just then. Something hit Harper's left shoulder and he almost dropped Beka. Tendrils of pain swept though his body, radiating from his arm. He closed his eyes against the overwhelming urge to pass out and slipped a little more.  
  
"Harper," Beka continued, concern filled her voice, "let go before we both die!"  
  
The engineer looked at her with hurt in his eyes and managed to utter a single word, "Never."  
  
Beka looked down. A bright blue light that came from the machine below her illuminated the gloomy darkness. It was almost pretty.almost.  
  
Maybe dying this way won't be so bad, Beka figured before she started struggling against Harper's death grip. She squirmed and kicked her legs out, trying to wrench out of her friend's grasp for his own good.  
  
Harper continued to hold on but the vibrations from Beka's movements jarred his left arm and he shivered in pain. His feet slid even more.  
  
"Beka," He gasped, "please.stop."  
  
Seeing the pain and desperation in Harper's eyes, she did.  
  
The sound of struggle behind Harper's prone figure seemed to quiet but he blamed it on his imagination and continued to stare at Beka. When he saw that the arm he was holding onto was shaking he frowned.  
  
"B-Beka, you're sh-sh-shaking."  
  
The salvage captain looked at him sadly, "No Harper, you are."  
  
"O-Oh.I'll g-get you a b-blanket as s-soon as I get y-y-you up h-here." The strain on his shoulder was starting to become too much, but he didn't dare let go.  
  
Hey kid, whatcha doin? Beka's voice came from above him and he could see her standing on the Maru, hands on her hips.  
  
Nothing, His own voice replied.  
  
Doesn't look like nothing.  
  
The picture in front of him shifted and he could see himself and Beka running from some Nietzscheans.  
  
Remind me not to ever trust ubers, no matter what anyone says, even if you do trust that person, It was disconcerting hearing his own voice and seeing himself talking.  
  
So you trust me now? Beka flashed him a smile before looking behind herself again.  
  
I never said that.  
  
Yes you did. You said even if you trust that person. That person you were referring to was me, so you must trust me.  
  
Just keep running, He said, feigning anger.  
  
His whole world seemed to dissolve and again he saw a different image.  
  
You alright? Beka asked him.  
  
He was lying in bed, sweat running down his face. It only took him a second to figure out when this had taken place, after one of his stupid nightmares.  
  
Yah, I'm fine, His voice sounded shaky even to him.  
  
You were screaming bloody murder. You want to talk about it?  
  
No.  
  
Do you want me to leave?  
  
No.  
  
She had just nodded and stayed there with him until he had fallen asleep again. That had been the first time he had ever woken her up but it hadn't been the last. This time stuck into his mind the most vividly because it was when he realized Beka kind of did understand him. She didn't pity him or look at him like most people, she just understood.  
  
The image faded and he was back in reality, staring at Beka. He could feel himself falling into unconsciousness and briefly wondered if what he had just witnessed had been his life flashing before his eyes.  
  
If that was supposed to be my whole life I want a redo, He mused.  
  
Harper looked down at Beka and smiled sadly, blinking away the water that had accumulated in his eyes. She was strong and defiant to the last. Even though they were hanging precariously over what seemed to be a bottomless pit, she showed no sign of weakness or fear, plain determination was etched in her face and he admired her for that.  
  
"Who said there's no such thing as angels?" He whispered to her before his eyes started to flutter close. The last thing he felt was Beka tightening her grip on his arm and his body slipping as the rest of his hold on the edge gave way.  
  
If Beka hadn't been yelling for help, they surely would've died but it just happened that Silek had heard and ran over to her. As Harper's body was about to go over, the alien snatched his ankle and pulled. He grunted at the weight of two humans, but managed to put all of that out of his mind as he concentrated solely on Beka. Just when he didn't think he could hold on any longer the heaviness was lifted and Beka and Harper both rose slowly back to safety. Beka, however, didn't let go of Harper until they were both sitting on the ground. She thanked the strange alien as Dylan, Trance, and Tyr walked over, having finished off the rest of the attackers. They were the only survivors.  
  
"Harper!" Trance was the first to cry out and make her way to the blonde human.  
  
"Time," Tyr said as he carefully flung the engineer over his shoulder.  
  
Dylan gasped in reply while he held one of his arms around his obviously injured ribs, "A little less than twenty minutes."  
  
"Follow me," Silek said as he took off in the direction of his ship. "It shouldn't take long to get back to my ship."  
  
"I'm sorry about your friends," Trance consoled as they ran through the empty corridors.  
  
Silek glanced at the gold girl before answering, "Me too." 


	7. Finis coronat opus

Chapter Seven: Finis coronat opus (The end crowns the work)  
  
"I can't call the short time we've been together pleasant but I'm glad I had the chance to meet you all," Silek addressed the Andromeda crewmembers as he docked with the gloritage class cruiser.  
  
"We're extremely grateful for your help Silek," Dylan said as he pumped the alien's hand with his own in an odd handshake.  
  
Leave it to Captain Hunt to endanger all our lives unnecessarily in order to talk to one of his new allies, Tyr thought as he sighed and waited impatiently with his arms across his chest. Time was dwindling and they only had five minutes left before the rip would close completely.  
  
Beka, with an equal sense of urgency, took Dylan by the shoulders and started to lead him away when Silek called out after them.  
  
"Wait! I have something that may be of use to you."  
  
The alien pulled what appeared to be a flexi from his coat.  
  
"I translated it into your language," He explained hastily as he handed it to Beka and began retreating back to his own ship.  
  
"What is it?" Beka asked but Silek was already out of hearing range.  
  
Shrugging to herself, Beka turned back to where Dylan was standing with a dazed expression on his face, and led him out of the hangar bay. Tyr and Trance took Harper down to med deck while the captain and first officer continued on to command.  
  
Rommie was absolutely giddy with relief that her whole crew had returned safely but yet for some reason, she wanted to cry. Sniffing, she smiled as Dylan and Beka entered command. They both looked surprisingly good for what they'd been through.  
  
"Dylan," the avatar addressed them when she'd finally found her voice. "Beka."  
  
"Oh Rommie, is it good to see you again. Plot a course outta here.and quick."  
  
"Yes sir," she replied sternly and tried hard not to blush at the captain's admittance of missing her. "Beka, would you like to do the honors? We have approximately one minute and thirty seconds before the tunnel closes. I really don't want to become a permanent fixture to this black canvas so I suggest you hurry."  
  
"You said it Rommie," Beka agreed as she took her place at the helm and abruptly threw the Andromeda into the rip. It bucked and tossed through throughout the entire ride but somehow they managed. Dylan's knuckles were white from holding onto a railing but he kept his death grip until they safely re-entered normal space.  
  
"Rommie?" He whispered the urgent question.  
  
The android smiled and turned to her captain, "We're back."  
  
"Good," Dylan said before promptly passing out.  
  
"Dylan?" A sweet voice broke through the cool darkness that seemed to engulf the captain.  
  
"Hmmm?"  
  
"Are you awake?" He recognized the questioner as Trance.  
  
"Uh-huh."  
  
"Well that's good. I fixed you. So you're all better now, if you want to go."  
  
Fixed? Better? Dylan struggled to put two coherent thoughts together while he opened his eyes. Mixed images came to him as he remembered a ship, Harper, aliens, and space.  
  
"What happened Trance?"  
  
"You blacked out and hit your head on the way down. It's a pretty nasty bump, but nothing major. You've been out for the past hour."  
  
Dylan sat up in the med deck bed and surveyed his surroundings. The only other times he could recall being a patient was when he had been shot, he and Rhade had gotten a severe case of food poisoning, and right after the Magog attack. Looking around, he saw Harper lying in the bed to his left, still unconscious.  
  
"Is he alright?" Dylan asked, using his head to indicate whom he was talking about and regretting it.  
  
"Harper? Yah, he'll be fine. He's anemic from the blood loss but other than that he's just got a bad concussion and a stitched up shoulder. He should actually be waking up any second now."  
  
As if on cue, Harper stirred in his sleep, mumbling something about liking the silk better.  
  
"Beka and Tyr?" Dylan continued as he stood up and stretched out.  
  
"They're both fine," Trance smiled in amusement.  
  
"It all just seems like a bad dream."  
  
The gold alien nodded as Dylan walked over to Harper. The engineer's whole forehead was encircled with a bandage, as was his left shoulder. His eyes moved under his lids but other than that he showed no tell tale signs of waking.  
  
"He's going to have to stay here for a few days," Trance said lightly.  
  
Dylan chuckled, "I'm sure he'll absolutely love that."  
  
"Probably."  
  
"I'm going to go check some stuff out," Dylan replied before leaving the med deck. "Tell me when he wakes up."  
  
Trance's sigh was swallowed as the doors whooshed shut again. She felt extremely lucky and relieved at the good fortune they'd all been granted. The millions of other bad futures hadn't played out.  
  
She looked up, as if searching the ceiling, and said, "Thanks."  
  
Five days later Harper was mobile again and very happy to actually be doing something. He still felt weak and occasional bouts of vertigo would stop him in his tracks, but other that he was great.  
  
Glancing around his messy room, he saw a black flexi on his pillow with a white note next to it. He grinned crookedly as he walked over and picked both of them up, reading the note first.  
  
Harper- I have no idea what this technobabble is but maybe you can understand some of it. If it's useful you can thank our friend Silek for the wonderful contribution. Beka  
  
The engineer frowned and warily turned the flexi on. He scanned the document for a few minutes and re-read it before his eyes went wide with disbelief.  
  
No way.  
  
**********  
  
We toil and sweat Yet never are met With accomplishments Quite like we figured. Except sometimes. Like this day. Call it Luck.  
  
**********  
  
The End 


End file.
